- 6/23/2025
Iran has launched attacks on US military bases in retaliation for previous American actions. Qatar has condemned the attack while also warning against regional escalation. Experts debate the potential outcomes, with some suggesting this could be the beginning of more severe actions from Iran. The situation raises questions about the stability of the Middle East and the possibility of further military confrontations.
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00:00Let's just go through the statement that has come from Qatar. Now that's significant and I'd like to bring in Harold, Adrian and Sarit just to break it down for us because this is absolutely significant.
00:12The Qatar government has come out and said that they've strongly condemned the targeted attack. They've called it a flagrant violation of their sovereignty.
00:20But they've also gone ahead and said that we reassure that Qatar's air defences successfully thwarted the attack. They also said that and they have emphasized that the continuation of such escalatory military actions undermines security and stability in the region.
00:36They've also, they're saying that Qatar was one of the first countries to warn against the dangers of Israeli escalation in the region.
00:46Now, again, Adrian, Qatar, while condemning Iranian action, is actually saying that they had warned against this escalation because of the Israeli escalation in the region.
01:03Let me, let me first state that Doha is basically the, and Qatar is, is basically the Pakistan of the Middle East.
01:14That's the double game that they're playing. So we have to understand that there is a close working relationship between the Islamic Republic and Qatar.
01:23This, for me, this is, you know, the comedy, it's another attempt to say we're giving you an off ramp here, America, when it's really comedy that all he had to do was stop enriching and stop reprocessing.
01:38He refused to do that. And this is the response. You know, Kuwait's, Qatar's in a difficult situation because, you know, 70% of their GDP, up to 70% comes from the South Par's oil, petroleum field or gas field, which they share with the Islamic Republic.
01:58So they're in a little bit of a bind. I've always questioned why we've had a base in Qatar, because they are not friendly.
02:06They are, as I said, they're Pakistan 2.0. And I've always maintained that the reason they're allowed there is because comedy wants us there.
02:15So that, one, he can spy on us, watch us, see ship movements, and two, it gives them a ripe target.
02:22So anything from Qatar saying this is an off ramp, yeah, you know, they're going to condemn it. That's for their audience.
02:29But who's comedy's audience at this point? It's dwindling. You know, in the region, it's dwindling.
02:35And then in the country, we don't get reports, but you've got to think it's falling apart.
02:41At least, yeah, layers have been removed. And you've got to expect that there's going to be layers that are just, they've had enough of this.
02:49They're just waiting for the right time to rise up.
02:51Right. Adrian, we have another guest who's just joined us, Zamir Jafri.
02:56He's a scholar at the Al-Mustafa University in Qom, Iran.
03:00Zamir, massive retaliation by Iran. But is Iran prepared now for a response from America and America-Israel combined?
03:16Well, thank you very much for having me on the show.
03:18First of all, this is a legal retaliation against an illegal act of war by America on a sovereign nation,
03:26which was condemned by a United Nations chief as well.
03:30What has happened is a definite retaliation, but I think this is just a start.
03:35I mean, they have sent some missiles just to find out what experts are saying, just to find out what kind of retaliation they can see.
03:44And we are definitely going to see much harder response from Iran very soon.
03:48And whether Iran is ready for it, Iran has been preparing for this war since last 30 years because of the aggression by America,
03:55because they're not ready to submit to the American interest in the Middle East like Saudi or like Qatar or like other countries.
04:02If they submit to the American interest and provide all the resources that they have to the Americans and the colonialist and the imperialist powers,
04:09then the war will end.
04:11This war is about standing on your own feet.
04:13And this is a country which believes in that we are Shia Muslims and we believe in the ideology of Imam Hussain,
04:20which means never say to never say to never accept humiliation.
04:24So, the way Trump wanted it, he wanted complete surrender.
04:30That is exactly what Imam Hussain, a.s. told us, never to submit to a tyrant.
04:35So, that is the ideology.
04:36Whether Iran is ready, definitely Iran is ready.
04:39That is the reason they have taken this step.
04:41And this is just a small sign of what is going to come in the future.
04:46What is that, Zamir?
04:47What is that?
04:47You said it twice over that this is just the beginning.
04:51And this is only beginning to what are bigger things that are to come.
04:56What are those bigger things that we are looking at?
04:59Iran has not used any of its latest missiles so far.
05:05You know, when the war starts, what experts say is this.
05:09First, they send the missiles to identify the air defense system and what the air defense system and how it is working.
05:16And then the real, real thing starts.
05:19And that's at a later stage.
05:20Iran has given a clear signal that it is not going to submit.
05:24Ayatollah Khamenei said three important points, which is important for your viewers to understand.
05:28One, he said in his latest speech, one, Iran will never accept post-war.
05:34Point number two, Iran will never accept post-peace.
05:38Point number three, if America starts the war, then we will see some problems and we will face some difficulties.
05:49But the kind of difficulties that Americans can face is much huge.
05:53There are 40,000 soldiers in the Middle East and they don't have the system to defend them.
06:00And all the American experts know this, that they have attacked Iran with miscalculation
06:06and they thought it is Egypt or Syria or Iraq.
06:10We will finish this match like a T-20 match.
06:13And when Iran has responded, what Trump said was very interesting.
06:17When he attacked, he said, oh, this was the biggest military in the world and no military could do this.
06:23That was for the sales of his arms and he was working as a marketing director for an arms company.
06:29And then he clearly said, oh, now we want peace and we don't.
06:33So it's like, I hit you, I'll kill you.
06:35But, oh, you don't, you don't do anything.
06:38I want peace.
06:38No, if you hit somebody, any sovereign nation which believes in dignity, which believes in equality,
06:44then you definitely need to face retaliation and definitely Iran will retaliate and it will retaliate much harder.
06:54Sarit Zehavi still is with us, an expert on Iran, joining us from Tel Aviv.
06:59Sarit, your response to what Zamir had said just a while ago, that there could, this is just the beginning
07:05and that there could be much harsher response from Iran and that Israel and America should be watching out for what Iran has in store.
07:18First, as an Israeli living nine kilometers from Lebanon, I'm not in Tel Aviv, I'm in Israel's north.
07:25I'm under attack by the Iranian proxies in the region since October 8, 2023.
07:31Okay, the rockets that Iran provided to Hezbollah were launched to my house against my family in the past year and a half.
07:40They were provided thousands of them to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to Hamas in Gaza.
07:45And we didn't open this war back then in 2023.
07:49Second, I want to say that, I want to ask Mr. Jafari, the cleric from Com that spoke before me,
07:58I would love to see his face again, if he agrees to speak with me.
08:01I'm not sure.
08:02He's not with us anymore, Sarit.
08:05Apologies to them.
08:05I would love to ask him if I could, how come he's saying that Iran is not aggressive and we are the aggressive,
08:12if in every speech of his supreme leader, Khamenei, in every speech he gives,
08:18the people are shouting, death to America, death to Israel.
08:21How is this exactly reaching their hands to peace?
08:25Third, I want to ask how come they are reaching their hands to peace,
08:30but at the same time, Iran is developing a nuclear program for military purposes,
08:35and it was proven that it is for military purposes,
08:38because the enrichment of the uranium was much, much higher than what is needed for civilian purposes.
08:43At the same time, they are developing a program of ballistic missiles that can reach 4,000 kilometers away from Iran,
08:52and if you calculate the distances, you understand what I'm saying.
08:56And one last thing, I believe that if the Iranian Islamic Republic will eventually understand that we are here to stay,
09:07and Israelis are not going anywhere, and Israelis are not going anywhere,
09:11and they will reach their hands to peace, and they will abandon the nuclear program and the ballistic missiles program,
09:19there will be peace tomorrow.
09:21We will seize our fire tomorrow.
09:23So all these talking about aggressiveness is just nice English,
09:26but the deeds behind this is the aggressiveness of Iran.
09:30Okay, Harold wrote, just nice English is what Sarit Zehavi is calling the threats from the Iranian,
09:39or the scholar from Iran.
09:43What do you make of the escalation that we are seeing?
09:47Donald Trump is in the Situation Room.
09:49There are jets that are flying off bases in Saudi Arabia.
09:53Are we looking at a very long night over here with responses coming in from the United States of America?
10:00I cannot imagine that President Trump will not do everything necessary to defend American interests in the Middle East.
10:12I think it's absurd.
10:13I think Sarit, what she said, is absolutely right.
10:18What Adrian said is absolutely right.
10:22Sometimes you're talking, oh my God, what's going to happen in the next day, whatever.
10:26Sometimes, you know, a patient has to have an operation, and that hurts, but it saves the patient.
10:33We're at the point now that the Iranian people have suffered the most of anybody from the terrorists that run their country.
10:42The Iranian people, God willing, will have a chance to save themselves,
10:47because the way this regime is acting, I find it difficult to believe that it has much longer on the face of the earth.
10:56Okay, Adrian, you really think that over here, Iran's response is not going to hurt the Americans
11:06to the extent that maybe countries in the Middle East would want Washington, D.C.
11:13to get Iran back to the talking table?
11:15I don't think it's going to hurt the United States at all.
11:21I think you're going to see a response from the United States that tells Kameny once again,
11:26don't do it again.
11:30You know, we had Biden who said don't and didn't follow up with any actions.
11:33Trump's using force to ensure peace.
11:38And then in regards to the individual from Khom, we've got to remember that he's not an expert on any type of military ordinance,
11:50what the Islamic Republic has in their supply, what their stockpile is.
11:56He is a cleric, and he's going to puppet the regime talking points.
12:02So he's got his religious credentials, but he's also got his propagandist political scientist credentials as well.
12:08And you can pretty much draw a line and counter everything that he said.
12:13It would take too much time for this show.
12:15But no, the United States response is, once again, it's going to send a clear message to Kameny.
12:20But as Sered once said before, he is, you know, this is the kind of guy that's going to fight to the death.
12:29It has nothing to do about national pride or anything like that.
12:33It has nothing to do with this.
12:34This was all about Kameny and really this whole belief in Makti-ism and this apocalyptic worldview that they have.
12:42Okay. There are two options that we were debating earlier when I was speaking to a few experts, Adrian.
12:48One was the military option, looking at and hitting out at the military bases.
12:54And I was speaking to a senior journalist and political analyst from Tehran, Elham Abedini.
13:01And she very clearly had said that the response is going to be military.
13:05It is going to be against U.S. military bases in the region, and it has happened.
13:10The second very important aspect that we were discussing was the Strait of Hormuz.
13:14The other way that Iran could impact the world, not just the region, should they start creating or shutting down or restricting the Strait of Hormuz.
13:26What's your reading on what's going to happen next on that front?
13:29Well, those are great questions and something I was debating last night.
13:35I think we all kind of expected either a hit on a direct confrontation where they launch something at our air bases and forward operating posts like El Tomf in Iraq and these other kinetic actions,
13:52or do they do an indirect maneuver, which has been their history and been their practice over the years and shut off and close down the Strait of Hormuz.
14:02This goes to show you where they have very little leverage at this point.
14:07China basically told them, no, you cannot shut down the Strait of Hormuz.
14:10That's going to cripple us.
14:11So that's when you're seeing this response.
14:14And then the American response is, you've got to understand that we were expecting, if I was expecting it,
14:21you can expect the entire war cabinet has been expecting this for plans that have been going on for weeks, maybe months here.
14:28So there are a number of options that were drawn up on the table and target packages that, okay, they do this,
14:36then we take out this until they finally get the message.
14:39Unfortunately, I don't know if Khamenei ever will get the message until its regime is gone.
14:45And again, that's up to the Iranian people to take that back.
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